Yet the irony is delicious. A practical solution to a typographic problem became a psychological monument. Every time you write "I," you are visually announcing your importance on the page. You are saying, in effect: Look here. This matters. For philosophers, "I" is not a word. It is a problem.
David Hume, the Scottish empiricist, famously looked inward for the "I" and found nothing. He wrote: "When I enter most intimately into what I call myself, I always stumble upon some particular perception or other, of heat or cold, light or shade, love or hatred, pain or pleasure. I never can catch myself at any time without a perception." Yet the irony is delicious
But English demands
In other words, "I" is not a thing. It is a verb disguised as a noun. "I" is the process of experiencing. It is the flashlight beam, not the wall it illuminates. You are saying, in effect: Look here
The most powerful use of "I" in literature might be the shortest poem ever attributed to Muhammad Ali. In his autobiography, he printed just two words: Me. We. That "Me" is defiant. It is a declaration of self before an invitation to community. You cannot get to "We" without first securing "I." The internet has changed "I" forever. In the age of social media, the first-person pronoun has become a brand. You no longer have an "I"; you have a profile. Your "I" is curated, optimized, and monetized. It is a problem